Army PFC dies in apparent suicide

An Army private first class died in an apparent suicide last Thursday, officials said Wednesday. The 21-year-old PFC, surnamed Lee, was transported to a nearby hospital right after he was found to have hanged himself at an Army regiment-level unit last Monday. He died on Thursday. Investigators are not ruling out the possibility of him opting to take his own life due to mental or physical abuses b

July 13, 2011

Navy to bloster presence on Ulleung, move seen to protect Dokdo islets

The Navy has decided to expand a helicopter landing facility on Ulleung Island and dispatch two more military helicopters to it, according to a lawmaker.The move comes as Seoul seeks to bolster its capabilities to defend the easternmost islets of Dokdo over which Japan has been persistently making sovereignty claims.Rep. Song Young-sun of the minority Future Hope Alliance party said that the Navy

July 13, 2011

Navy to expand base on East Sea island

The Navy will expand its air base on an East Sea island in a bid to ensure better protection of the nation's territorial waters surrounding the easternmost islets of Dokdo, a lawmaker said Wednesday.According to Rep. Song Young-sun of the minor opposition Future Hope Alliance, the Navy recently inked a project to expand its base on Ulleung Island by about threefold to cover 5,040 square meters of

July 13, 2011

Defense minister to visit China this week

Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin will depart for China on Thursday for a three-day schedule that includes talks with his Chinese counterpart and other top government officials there, officials here said Tuesday.During their talks slated for Friday, Kim and Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Liang Guanglie will discuss a wide range of regional security issues including those concerning North Korea and ways

July 12, 2011

Gen. Thurman to be sworn in as USFK commander this week

The new commander of U.S. forces in Korea is scheduled to begin work later this week, as he has been confirmed by the Senate, a diplomatic source here said Monday.The Senate recently endorsed President Barack Obama's nomination of Gen. James Thurman as head of the 28,000 troops after last month's confirmation hearing, and a change of command ceremony will be held in Seoul Thursday, added the sourc

July 12, 2011

S. Korean, U.S. air forces to hold aerial refueling drills

South Korean and U.S. Air Forces have recently reached an agreement to stage an aerial refueling exercise on a regular basis here, using a U.S. in-flight tanker, a military source said Monday.The first joint refueling exercise in which the U.S. is to mobilize its KC-135 tanker currently based in Okinawa, Japan, is expected to take place in the latter half of this year, the source said.“Although ou

July 11, 2011

Abuse at barracks cause of escalating concern in Korea

Defense minister orders full-scale inspection of all military unitsAlthough his son will not join the military for another 10 years, Moon Young-sook is already apprehensive that his boy could suffer the “appalling” human rights abuses said to be widespread there.“I feel more worried than before as it is said that such abuses are still taking place in many units, not in just a few. When we heard of

July 10, 2011

U.S. nuclear-powered submarine makes port call in S. Korea

The U.S. nuclear-powered submarine USS Texas made a port call in South Korea on Saturday as part of a regular deployment to the Pacific area, the U.S. military in the South said.    The Texas, based in Hawaii, arrived at South Korea's southeastern port city of Busan with more than 130 crew members, according to officials at the U.S. Forces Korea.    The 7,800-ton Texas is a Virginia-class attack s

July 9, 2011

Defense chief orders inspection of military discipline after rampage

Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin has ordered military commanders to inspect the standards of discipline and irregularities, following a shooting rampage earlier this week by a marine that killed four colleagues on a front-line unit, a source said Saturday.    Questions over discipline have been raised since the 19-year-old marine corporal, only identified by his surname Kim, opened fire on Monday at

July 9, 2011

Ganghwa Marine suicide revealed

A soldier had killed himself at the Marine Corps Second Division near Seoul just a day before Monday’s shooting rampage at his division, military officials said Friday, as investigations continued into the case that killed four soldiers. Authorities said they are investigating whether habitual bullying was rampant among marines at the division in Ganghwa, Gyeonggi Province, leading to the two trag

July 8, 2011

Defense budget focuses on combat training

The Ministry of National Defense has drawn up a 33.48 trillion won ($32.43 billion) budget plan for next year with a focus on making the military “truly combat-ready.”The ministry submitted its budget proposal to the Finance Ministry on June 30. The planned budget is 6.6 percent higher than the 2011 budget of 31.4 trillion won.“In broad terms, we can say that we have significantly increased the bu

July 7, 2011

Military to set up non-smoking units

The defense military has declared a war on smoking, unveiling a plan to lower its service members’ smoking rate by 3 percentage points this year.Some 47.2 percent of military personnel were smokers as of the end of last year, higher than the average of 39.6 percent for the country’s men, according to government data.“Under the smoking reduction goal, the defense ministry designated 100 non-smoking

July 5, 2011

Cheonghae repels vessels in piracy attempt

A South Korean antipiracy unit operating off the coast of Somalia on Sunday morning repelled three ships suspected of trying to seize a Panamanian-registered chemical freight vessel, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday.The Cheonghae Unit received an emergency satellite call from the 17,000-ton Azalea belonging to South Korea’s major shipping firm STX POS at around 1 a.m., JCS officials said.The

July 4, 2011